Weird innit - now that it's happened, you think well of course, it was bound to, the signs were there (bit like Morrissey coming out). But I thought Jose and Roman would be the Blair and Brown of football for ages to come, locked in a relationship of mutual loathing and interdependence.

Talking of combustible relationships, you read Damned United? Now there's one for the DBC.

New speculation on the possible replacement of Martin Jol by Juande Ramos in the Guardian today, I just cannot see this happening to be honest. Can the Spurs board really be so dumb, and would Ramos leave a Sevilla side equipped to challenge for (and win) serious silverware again this year?

Re. different threads - "the best bits on Dissensus are derailed threads" and all that, but it'd be helpful. Anyone up for making an EPL thread and a separate one on football politics etc.?

If there's any comfort for Jol at the mo, it'll be seeing his prosepctive replacement getting stuffed 3-0 by...Arsenal.

"If there's any comfort for Jol at the mo, it'll be seeing his prosepctive replacement getting stuffed 3-0 by...Arsenal."

How about Mourinho for Spurs? That would be a coup if they could pull it off, might win over fans who don't like the way Jol has been treated and if they are really offering "head-spinning money" it could be attractive to the Special One.

Actually now gutted England beat Russia last week. There's two decent managers we could go for....

Three, actually. If England's victory keeps Russia from qualifying for Euro 2008, Guus Hiddink should also be looking for a new job in a few months' time. But then it might be too late to replace McClaren, and I'm sure Abramovich is already pulling strings to get Hiddink.

Silly but fun to speculate who's going to end up sitting where in this endless game of musical chairs!

"... the Russian billionaire decided to hand out an impromptu tactics lesson to Michael Essien.
Employing striker Andriy Shevchenko as translator, he instructed midfielder Essien, player of the year last season, to hit passes wide rather than through central areas where the Norwegians had compressed play."

Blimey! I wonder if that's true.

"Grant's first match comes at Old Trafford this afternoon, but he did not work yesterday for religious reasons"

That's ridiculous.

Can't wait for the game. I hope Utd bury them and the wheels come right off.

"He must also wait for his Israeli coaching qualifications to be cleared by Uefa before he can be formally approved as a top-flight manager. Chelsea insist the process will be trouble-free.
Though Grant claimed that he had no 'plan to be the manager' until the appointment came about, he had begun requesting clearance from Uefa a fortnight ago."

Well, 2-0 for United, not exactly inspired but completely closed Chelsea out of the game after the sending off as you might expect. United up to second and not playing that well, looking very ominous for the other teams. Hopefully this could be the start of Chelsea's slide to mid-table mediocrity....
Guess it's all about the sending-off though right? To me it was a harsh decision but not necessarily the wrong one, it was one of those challenges that's kind of somewhere in-between a yellow and a red. If you're unlucky you have to walk, if you're lucky you get yellow. He was certainly reckless.

Guess it's all about the sending-off though right? To me it was a harsh decision but not necessarily the wrong one, it was one of those challenges that's kind of somewhere in-between a yellow and a red. If you're unlucky you have to walk, if you're lucky you get yellow. He was certainly reckless.

One of the worst reffed big games in years I thought. The Mikel tackle was never a red, and once he'd sent him off he then only gave Giggs and Joe Cole yellows for tackles that were just as high. He didn't give a penalty where he should've (Joe Cole on Evra), gave one where there wasn't (Saha's ridiculous dive - which they should administer post-match floggings for), and then he let United score two and a half minutes into the one minute added on at half time. And something I didn't see at the time because I left the pub after the second goal, Wes Brown (already on a booking) clattered Kalou as the final whistle went, injuring him, and Mike Dean does nothing!